Introduction.

The basis for the policy is to enable communication by Officers of the Society, to the membership.  The information held by the society will not be used for any other purpose, and will generally take the form of reminders to members, regarding renewal of membership by subscriptions, and mailing of such items as could be seen as the legitimate business of the Society.

The Lawful Basis of the Policy

This will be based on the consent of members to allow their information to be used by the Society for contacts, as described above.

Consent will be obtained from members using the membership subscription form.  A specific question will be addressed by the form, to enable individuals who wish to join the Society, to explicitly grant permission for data to be used as described.  It will be made clear that the information given will only be used in the process of the legitimate business of the Society.  There will be no third parties given access to the data. 

It will be made clear to members that their consent can be withdrawn at any time or that they have access to the data held.

It is proposed that this consent will be reviewed, and that it will be requested for confirmation, every five years of membership, or if and when the terms of business of the Society is subject to any substantive change. 

On the issue of consent, in terms of the practical business of the Society, it will need to be made clear that withdrawal of consent will make it necessary for members to arrange to collect half-yearly Journal publications, as mailings will not be possible.

The Legitimate Basis of the Policy

As stated above, the use of the data will be confined to the Society carrying out its normal business.  This will routinely consist of delivering reminders to members, when annual subscriptions are due, either by e-mail (where such data is held), surface mail or by telephone.   In addition, as many members are not regularly seen by Officers, or attend monthly meetings, the half-yearly Journal of the Society needs to be delivered to members.  This is done either by hand, or by surface mail.   The list of postal addresses serves this purpose.   The list of postal addresses is not used for any other purpose, nor is it shared with any other person or organisation.

Records of the consent given will be kept, together with the date on which it was obtained, by the Officer administering membership records.

Committee business meetings will regularly revisit the use of data, with a view to ensuring that any changes to Society business protocols does not, in any way, expose the data to any use not in keeping with the legitimate business of the Society.

The Committee has undertaken a Legitimate Interests Assessment, and is satisfied that the Society complies with this policy.

General Data Protection and Data Management

The data held by the Society is used only by those Officers who have legitimate reason to make contacts with members. Generally, this will be the Officer administering membership records, and the Secretary.

The data held on record will consist of the members (title and) name, postal address, telephone number (where provided), e-mail address (optional), and in some cases, the subject area of special historical interest (also optional).

This information is held on a physical card index, and in electronic form; it will be used to make contacts to members as described, and to generate a mailing list, for delivery of such items, as deemed necessary to the legitimate business of the Society.

The information will be sampled to provide information to other officers with reports on numbers of members, using only names and membership numbers.  At no time will the whole membership record be remitted by electronic means.  It is envisaged that, at times, individual items of information may be transmitted by e-mail (i.e. in the event that any individual has a change of address, or other information).  E-mail addresses may be used to communicate directly with members who have provided such information.

Storage of electronic information will be done by means of a separate, data storage medium, and not on any pc, laptop, or handheld device, which might be transported in public.  The card index will also be held at a secure place.  Hard copies of membership data may be generated, but distribution of these will be limited to the persons named above.  Additionally, details of individuals data may be requested by the Secretary, in order to carry out legitimate Society business.

Additional Information

The principles of this policy will need to be made explicit to Officers and Committee members, and at the succession of posts on the Committee, the departing Officer administering membership issues will need to work with the new incumbent, to ensure that the practices of membership work are maintained.  As these practices are not onerous, this should not present any difficulties.  In the event of changes to officer roles, protocols in use to describe, for example, those members who need a reminder to renew, and cross-checking of paper and electronic records, will be shared.